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Do savings increase in response to salient information about retirement and expected pensions?

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  • Dolls, Mathias
  • Doerrenberg, Philipp
  • Peichl, Andreas
  • Stichnoth, Holger

Abstract

How can retirement savings be increased? We explore a unique policy change in the context of the German pension system to study this question. As of 2004, the German pension authority started to send out annual letters providing detailed and comprehensible information about the pension system and individual expected pension payments. This reform did not change the level of pensions, but only manipulated the knowledge about and salience of expected pension payments. Using German tax return data, we exploit two discontinuities in the age cutoffs of receiving such a letter to study their effects on private retirement savings. Our results show that the letters increase private retirement savings. The effects are fairly sizable and persistent over several years. We further show that the letter increases labor earnings, and that the increase in savings partly crowds out charitable donations. Moreover, we present evidence suggesting that both information and salience drive the savings effect. Our paper adds to a recent literature showing that policies that go beyond the traditional neoclassical reasoning can be powerful to increase savings rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Dolls, Mathias & Doerrenberg, Philipp & Peichl, Andreas & Stichnoth, Holger, 2016. "Do savings increase in response to salient information about retirement and expected pensions?," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-059, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16059
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    14. Saurabh Bhargava & Dayanand Manoli, 2015. "Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(11), pages 3489-3529, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ihle, Dorothee, 2017. "Quantile treatment effects of Riester participation on wealth," CAWM Discussion Papers 96, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    2. Giesecke, Matthias & Yang, Guanzhong, 2018. "Are financial retirement incentives more effective if pension knowledge is high?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 278-315, July.
    3. Kochskämper, Susanna, 2018. "Stellungnahme zum Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung sowie dem Antrag der Abgeordneten Pia Zimmermann, Susanne Ferschl, Matthias W. Birkwald, weiterer Abgeordneter und der Fraktion DIE LINKE (BT-Drucks," IW-Reports 46/2018, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) / German Economic Institute.
    4. Crusius, Tobias L. & von Werder, Marten, 2017. "The affluency to quit: How inheritances affect retirement plannings," Discussion Papers 2017/24, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    5. Blaufus, Kay & Milde, Michael, 2018. "Learning to save tax-efficiently: Tax misperceptions and the effect of informational tax nudges on retirement savings," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 225, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    6. Dorothee Ihle, 2017. "Quantile Treatment Effects of Riester Participation on Wealth," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 954, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    pensions; savings; salience; information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance

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